Another method for preparing and stocking emergency food is by using a Food Saver vacuum packing and heat sealing device. The company advises a two year storage life with dry goods using their vacuum packing device and their FoodSaver bags. I think you can get more life than that if you take reasonable care to store your food in a controlled conditions, at least until the SHTF. I don't know,...I could be wrong, but what I do know is that if a bag is two months of out date, I'm not throwing it away until I check it,...check it like you would any foods. You'll notice I wrote the food item name and packaging date (month and year) on each package in the picture below.
In order to supplement my 8 and 10 gallon cans of Mylar bag sealed dry foods, I bought a Sport Model Food Saver so I could prepare smaller packages of foods for Bug Out Bags and to prepare meals faster during movements like a Bug Out from my Urban Location to my planned Safe Location.
Today I prepared some foods for use during a vehicle Bug Out movement. I'll place the below described packaged foods in a bucket for immediate use.
$1.44 on 2 lbs of Split Pea Soup, packaged in 1 lb bags
$3.98 on 2 lbs of 16 Bean Ham flavored soup, packaged in 1 lb bags
$1.04 on Salt, packaged in 1 lb 10 ounce cans
$1.44 for 2 lbs Brown Sugar, packaged in one bag
$3.55 for 8 lbs of Pinto Beans, which I packaged into two 4 lb bags
$4.35 for 6 lbs of Enriched White Rice, packaged into one bag
$2.00 for 2 lbs of Long Grain Brown Rice, packaged into two 1 lb bags
$3.64 for a 10 ounce pack of Coffee already vacuumed packed
$4.04 for one 8 ounce bottle of Adobo Seasoning for the rice and beans
I figure I can easily get two weeks of meals out of the above ingredients. Each day having two small meals. All for a total cost of $25.48 for the food items.
I have some extra heavy duty one gallon zip lock bags from which I'll place the ingredients for my meal into, add water and let soak, if possible in the sunlight, then transferring to a pot to cook in later on. This shortens the cooking time and if you can't cook it, well you can eat it like it is.
I packed the Brown Sugar, not just as an after thought, but to use on any game like fish or rabbits or even snakes I catch. Plus I plan on adding some Steel Cut Oats to this bucket for which Brown Sugar is a necessity.
All of the above fits into a bucket I'll place in my truck, in a ready location, if and when I Bug Out. Smaller versions of the above dry foods, and other foods like peanuts and granola, are in vacuum packed smaller packages and sitting in my Bug Out Bags. I have several Bug Out bags, anticipating people to come to my location in the event of TEOTWAWKI. Who I keep and integrate into my Urban Survival Group, who I turn away maybe giving them a Bug Out Bag (no use creating enemies if you can help it) and who I just turn away cold (sometimes you can't help but create enemies) is another story, once of which I have addressed in different posts such as "Absorbing People into Your Survival Group".
Good luck -prepare well.
